Remembering

I wanted to show some pictures of the memorials that I visited today in Philadelphia. Some of them don't really qualify as official memorials to the fallen and to those who have served, but I think they can still represent the forces and they are pretty close to one another anyway.


A quick history lesson. The USS Olympia is the only surviving vessel from the Spanish American War of 1898 and was Admiral Dewey's flagship in the fight for Phillipines. It is an example of Teddy Roosevelt's gun boat diplomacy strategy, you know the walk sofly but carry a big stick policy that we don't do anymore. And the sub is the USS Becuna from WWII.

These are pictures of the Philadelphia Korean War Memorial. Listed on several of the coulmns are the names of 610 men and women from the Philadelphia area who lost their lives from 1950 up until the truce signing in 1953. To this day, there are still armed forces on the North, South Korean border trying to prevent a continuation of war that has never offically stopped. Although, I guess since Congress never officially declared war on North Korea it never officially started either.

This a picture of a small part of the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial with names of those from the Philadelphia area listed. The actual start of the Vietnam War will depend on your own point of reference. For some it may have started in 1945 when the Japanese were forced to leave, or 1954 when the French were forced to leave, or 1964 when they tried to force the Americans to leave at the Gulf of Tonkin. Whatever date you choose however, by 1975 they Americans were finally out of Vietnam with the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and 2400 missing.

And on the other side of memorial are panels in granite of scenes taken from the conlict.

On Independence Mall today, just below the National Constitution Center, there was a make shift memorial dedicated to the over 4000 men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq with a mock grave stone marked with the the name and rank of each person covering most of the lawn at the north of Market St.

Staff Sergeant Jae Sik Moon was 21 and from Levittown PA when he was killed and whose mother would be later robbed by the Goffney twins. I neither met him nor knew him, but since I wanted to write this to remember a person rather than a number, this one is for him.